Do not be deceived. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes downfrom the Father of lights, ... James 1:16-17
Do you recognize God's goodness in your life? One of our main problems of seeing the goodness of God is that we want to define what "goodness" is. If things are going well, the bills are paid, and the kids aren't yelling, then God is being good to us. And what happens in the times of testing and temptation is that we fail to see God's goodness at work in our lives.
In Jesus' day the Greek Stoics and Epicureans viewed God as a god of apathy; indifferent to the needs of man. Is that the way we view God? It is impossible to walk with God if we question his goodness. Suffering and trials will come. Unfortunately, they are a part of life. It takes a great measure of faith to see and recognize God's goodness at all times. However not all of life is made up of trials and temptations. There are those "good" days squeezed in between, and those good days help us to make it through the hard times. James recognizes the goodness of God that works in the trials for the building of our faith, and that helps us overcome the tempting times of life. When the hard times hit, we don’t feel the goodness of God, but we can remember His faithfulness and goodness of what He has done in our lives.
Perhaps the greatest thing about God and His goodness is that He is dependable, and His goodness is constant. He is not like the man who doubts and is unstable and unreliable. In our times of trials, tempting, or good days, He is always the same. The God of the mountain is the God of the valley.
James says in verse 16, "Do not be deceived."There are people who question the goodness of God. We are deceived if we think the Christian life is all trial and testing. God's great goodness is woven into the texture of life.We admit that there are shadows of doubt and dark clouds of pain and suffering in this life. But we must also recognize and see the beautiful picture of God's eternal goodness and know that the Light will not be denied. Darkness comes to an end! We don’t have to surrender to defeat. God is utterly dependable and there is no variation or shifting shadow in Him. That is a promise to remember in hard times and a reason to lift our head and trust in Him!
Scripture to Clam:
To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 2:26
